Before & After

I know times are lean for lots of people right now...but that doesn't mean we don't want nice things anymore, it just means we can't have them right now. That's a bummer! But it's life...so... I'm always looking for ways to make my house cute on my budget so that I can take part in the fun now. Bad? Probably. So...unless you are willing to purchase new things on credit {which I don't recommend & have never done} sometimes the only options are to do it yourself or go without. I wanted to do this little post to {1st} show you an example of how you can have nice things with just a tiny bit of $ and {2nd} show you how to do it for yourself if times are lean {and even if they're not}.

If there's one thing I really enjoy, it's re-doing furniture. I love filling my home with cute things, especially cute things I made! That feeling just doesn't compare to purchasing something new! {Don't get me wrong..I LOVE new furniture, too!} My hubby just has to deal with our overflowing garage full of "projects" yet to be done...poor guy....but not really when you think about how much moolah {$} I save him! I know girls, you can go broke on good deals...but seriously...with furniture--this project was a GOOD DEAL!! Whenever you have the opportunity to receive furniture for little or nothing--take it! There's always something that can be done with it. {well, I take that back...sometimes there's not..and sometimes there's no place to put it...} But don't pass up a chance to even just "drive by" that yardsale....you never know what you might see....

Anyways, this is from back in August when it was 110 degrees outside. There was a house being built behind us so all of the workers could see into our backyard where I spent the mornings doing this piece. Other than that, I did it entirely alone. It was that easy!

Here's the furniture before: {it's in my mom's friend's garage}



It's really not my style, but I thought since it was pretty much free I would try my hand in re-doing it to try & fit my house...

Here's my inspiration:

This is a page from the Country Sampler Magazine. I saw this piece a few months before & loved it. I have a thing for that color of green. I think black furniture looks soooo good up against it.
I remembered how much I liked it and thought I could do something sort-of like it with my new found stuff.

Here's the after:

Here's how I did it:

I am in no way a professional. I've refinished some really UGLY things. Just ask my husband. I'm not patient and I have a hard time waiting for paint to dry! I want to do projects that only take an hour. Put the baby to bed, a movie on for the kids and go to work. Never does anything take me an hour....it takes me days. I have high hopes of getting things finished quickly....but being patient is the key. Easier said that done, I know.

This project took me 3 days.

I started by taking off the tack-paper all over the inside of it. I HATE hot weather, but thanks to that heat the tack-paper came off super quick. {The furniture had white tack-paper all over the inside}. I then wiped it down to see how much I needed to sand it. I also dislike sanding things. Takes SO MUCH TIME! But I did sand this baby down. Really good, and too good in a couple of places where the wood veneer was thin. Oops.

I sanded it with a little electric mouse sander with a fine sandpaper. I didn't want to rough it up too much.

Oh...I tore off the top thingy. I have NO idea what those are called, you know..the little curly things on top in the "before" picture. Not a fan of those babies. At all.

I painted it with a sponge brush. I don't know if that's what professionals use, but that's what I used. It's all I had. This went on super smooth, but needed a couple coats. Good thing about this paint....I didn't have to put on a top coat. Yay...less time to wait for paint to dry. I purchased it at Home Depot, but Lowes has it too. Don't look at Walmart..it's not there..

When it was finished and dry, I made my husband drag it in for me. I put the hardware back on inside. I also put the doors back on. {Yes, I actually took them off...usualy I would try to figure out a way to keep them on, but I wanted it to look good and took them off.} Then I sanded the edges. I should have done this step outside--black paint dust everywhere....but, lucky for me the finish underneath was still a little redish! When I sanded it the red shown through. I've found with painting my signs that I can achieve this look with all finishes, all I needed to do was use a little bit of a stain. You can get wood stain in little tins from Walmart.
I love the way it turned out. I put out all my Fall decorations in it. Its funny because this project seriously only cost me about $8. That's how much the paint was. I kept all the hardware. The only crappy thing about the whole project was how HOT it was outside when I did it. Oh well.